Tasting butterflies

Rudy Benavides rbenavid at hotmail.com
Thu Jul 26 15:36:16 EDT 2001


Have you ever eaten larvae?  If you have watched the tv program _Insectia_ 
with Canadian entomologist Georges Brossard, you may recall the episode he 
did on the Aegiale hesperiaris skippers in Mexico.  The larvae, found at the 
base of yucca and agave plants, are added to the individual bottles of 
Mescal to provide its distinctive flavor.  But indigenous people in Mexico 
also gather the caterpillars, deep fry them, and then season with their 
flavorful spicy sauces.  In that particular television  episode, Georges was 
seen helping his host dig out handfuls of the caterpillars at the base of a 
yucca plant (?), then  showing how they were cooked, and finally helping 
himself to a plateful....yumm.  I can still hear him in his distinctive 
French Candaian accent saying....."ah, there ees notheeng more finer than a 
plate of theese delicious gusanos de Maguey".....or sometheeng like that.

Rudy/Maryland

p.s. Brossard is the founder of the Montreal Insectarium, and the last i 
heard was that he was also involved in creating one for Audobon in New 
Orleans.

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